LOCAL government minister Nick Raynsford will visit Liverpool on Monday to chair a public hearing about proposals for a regional parliament in the North West.

Currently the assembly works in a shadow capacity, with no real power to make decisions, and is not elected by the public.

It will have to win a referendum, next autumn, to gain limited tax-raising powers and a £2bn annual budget.

The fledgling regional assembly has already set a target of 50,000 jobs to be created by 2010.

It has pledged that 10,000 of these jobs, focused on small technology-based companies, will be created in Merseyside.

The assembly is also currently lobbying for 5,000 civil servant jobs to be directed to the North West from London.

Yes campaigners believe it will give the region the chance to compete on an even footing with London and the South East.

It will also be a publicly-elected body, allowing individuals more say in the running of the North West.

However, No campaigners claim the figures are "pure speculation" and that it makes no difference what targets the regional assembly set. It will amount to little more than an expensive talking shop with no real power.

If there is a Yes vote, elections would take place in 2005. It is not yet known how many members would be chosen for Merseyside.

* LOCAL government minister Nick Raynsford will visit Liverpool on Monday to chair a public hearing in a bid to stimulate debate on the subject at 6pm at the Liverpool Marriott City Centre Hotel. Admission is by ticket only (0161 952 4284).

Costs will be met by increases in council tax

NO, says Sir David Trippier, chairman of the North West Says No Campaign

JOHN Prescott's plans for a North West Assembly are fundamentally flawed and potentially disastrous for our region.

Three warning lights shine most brightly: cost, power, democracy.

The estimated cost of setting up this new politicians palace is £30m with yearly running costs of £25m. But can we trust these figures?

The one irrefutable fact learnt from devolution in Scotland, Wales and London is that costs exceed estimates.

The most glaring example of this is the Holyrood Parliament where cost promises have been made and broken repeatedly.

Holyrood's costs now stand at £430m against its original estimate of £40m.

Worryingly the Assembly's running costs will be met by increases in council tax. We believe council tax bills will face fresh hikes when running costs outstrip estimates.

This is happening in London where council tax bills have more than quadrupled because the London Assembly's running costs have gone over budget - costs include having 50% more staff than estimated.

There are similar bureaucracy booms in Scotland and Wales.

In Scotland there are now 201 MPs and MSPs serving 72 constituencies costing £10m and nearly 1,000 extra bureaucrats costing an extra £20m.

In Wales there are over 1000 more civil servants.

Families in Lancashire and Cheshire will be hit with a double whammy.

Firstly their council tax bills will rise to pay the Assembly's running costs. Secondly, there is the cost of scrapping their county council to make way for the Assembly.

The leader of Cheshire, Paul Findlow, has estimated that Band D households could pay an extra £110 and £173-a-year - if the authority is replaced by three unitary authorities.

Despite its enormous cost, the Assembly will have nothing like the powers of the Scottish Parliament or Welsh Assembly.

Yes supporters point out how the Scots Parliament scrapped up-front tuition fees and the Welsh Assembly voted to freeze prescription charges.

But a North West Assembly would be powerless to do this.

It would have no power over public services. It would be unable to provide a single extra nurse, doctor, teacher or police officer.

As CBI director John Cridland said: "There is little business support for this. There is no evidence assemblies will have any impact on economic development."

One of the Yes Campaign's great fantasies is that the Assembly will improve local democracy.

There will be about 35 Assembly members, each responsible for an utterly unmanageable 230,000 people.

How can that improve local democracy when our MPs represent around 89,000 people and our councillors around 4500 people?

A North West Assembly will set counties, towns and cities against each other, competing for profile and money.

Let's copy France and do away with injustices

YES, says Anthony Wilson, the Necessary Group

I USED to think my objection to the way this country is run was just personal - the way the country is run from London and reported from London so if you arrived in this country from Mars, you would pretty soon think that the country, in its entirety, was London.

I am always amazed that on a Sunday morning 85% of the population of this country wake up to their Sunday papers to read reviews of restaurants, art exhibits and plays that they are never going to go to.

And no one seems to notice. So I have always had a deep distaste for the lop-sided, out of balance way the UK operates.

Two years ago, around the time John Prescott and his henchman, the heroic Ian McCartney MP, kept "Tony" to his promise to offer devolution to some of the regions, I discovered some facts that were not emotional, but which were shocking.

Exact figures for economic wealth show that there is a wealth gap between the regions of Britain and London and the South East.

No surprise there, but the fact is that that gap has been growing wider, year on year, for 40 years.

I assumed that there were injustices in the way our country was run, but never imagined that every year it was getting worse.

And the interesting statistical bit is that France, a country with the same historic problem as us - their main city is also the capital - has turned those injustices around.

To quote Sir Bob Scott, if your capital is Canberra, then Melbourne and Perth can prosper as well as Sydney; if your capital is Washington then hello New York, Chicago and LA; but if your capital is Paris and you're Lyon, you're screwed.

That was true, and the figures show that the wealth gap between Paris and the regions was growing, until the mid '70s when Mitterrand introduced a policy of devolution and giving power back to the regions.

The wealth gap is now closing. Are the French the only people who understand justice?

And am I the only person who finds it revolting that a child born today in Surrey has a life expectancy of exactly 10 years more than a child born in the North West.

There are inequalities of provision between the South East and ourselves that are almost unimaginable.

Every major report on the UK economy done in the last 15 years pinpoints our main weakness as a lack of regional structure and an overemphasis on the overheated South East.

An elected government for the North West is not just good for us - it's good for the country.

And finally, the changes which devolution will bring about will not be massive and sudden. They will be piecemeal, but oh so important - for our children and our children's children.